Intelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for tracking resources used by triggers such as alarms and timers that are used by mobile applications to schedule tasks and intelligently manipulating the timing of the triggers to optimize usage of resources such as, but not limited to: network, battery, CPU and/or memory are disclosed. In one embodiment, an intelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker tracks triggers from multiple applications on a mobile device and corresponding use of resources resulting from the triggers on a mobile device. The intelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker further determines correlations between the triggers and the corresponding use of the resources on the mobile device and manipulates, based on the correlations, timing or frequency of some or all of the triggers to optimize the use of the resources on the mobile device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. Utility applicationSer. No. 15/344,588 titled “INTELLIGENT ALARM MANIPULATOR AND RESOURCETRACKER” filed on Nov. 7, 2016, being issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,178,199on Jan. 8, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. Utility applicationSer. No. 14/223,689 titled “Intelligent Alarm Manipulator and ResourceTracker” filed on Mar. 24, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,516,127 issued onDec. 6, 2016, which claims the benefit from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/805,070 titled “Intelligent Alarm Manipulatorand Resource Tracker” filed on Mar. 25, 2013, which are all expresslyincorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

Applications installed on devices such as desktops, laptops, mobiledevices, etc., consume resources. The Windows task manager on devicesrunning Windows OS can display information such as a list ofapplications and processes that are running, CPU usage history, physicalmemory usage history and network utilization. Similarly, some mobiledevices can provide users battery usage information such as how muchbattery is consumed by the device screen, Wi-Fi connection, etc., and/orper application statistics such as memory used, amount of datadownloaded/uploaded, etc. However, this type of information is typicallydisplayed for the user to see, but is not actionable by either thedevice or a user of the device. For example, if a user observes that anapplication is using the network, other than taking extreme actions likedisconnecting from the network or force closing the application, theuser has no option to control how the application uses the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A-1 depicts a diagram illustrating example resource utilizationtracking and intelligent alarm management of alarms/timers of multipleapplications on a mobile device via the intelligent alarm manipulatorand resource tracker.

FIGS. 1A-2 and 1A-3 depict timing diagrams illustrating triggerprofiles, network activity profiles and power consumption profilesbefore and after optimization by the intelligent alarm manipulator andresource tracker.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host serverfacilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices), anapplication server or content provider, or other servers such as an adserver, promotional content server, or an e-coupon server in a wirelessnetwork (or broadband network) for resource conservation.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server and device which facilitates networktraffic management between a device, an application server or contentprovider, or other servers such as an ad server, promotional contentserver, or an e-coupon server for resource conservation and contentcaching. The proxy system distributed among the host server and thedevice can further track alarms/timers and resources used by suchalarms/timers to determine associations using which the proxy system canmanipulate the alarms/timers to occur at an optimal time to reduceresource usage.

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient side components in a distributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 1F illustrates an example diagram of the example components on theserver side of the distributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 1G illustrates an example diagram of a signaling optimizer of thedistributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 1H illustrates an example diagram of an example client-serverarchitecture of the distributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 1I depicts an example diagram illustrating data flows betweenexample client side components in a distributed proxy and cache system.

FIG. 2 depicts example components of a mobile device having theintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker.

FIG. 3 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a method ofintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker.

FIG. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certaininstances, well-known or conventional details are not described in orderto avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodimentin the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references tothe same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of theembodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinarymeanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in thespecific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used todescribe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in thespecification, to provide additional guidance to the practitionerregarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certainterms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotationmarks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaningof a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the samecontext, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated thatsame thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any oneor more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significanceto be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussedherein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one ormore synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use ofexamples anywhere in this specification including examples of any termsdiscussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to furtherlimit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplifiedterm. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodimentsgiven in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples ofinstruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note thattitles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of areader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein havethe same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in theart to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, thepresent document, including definitions will control.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods forintelligently manipulating alarms/timers to optimize resource usage on amobile device.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods toanalyze, examine, evaluate, determine, detect and/or discern anddocument associations between alarms/timers from multiple applicationsand the results usage of resources such as, but not limited to, batteryor power, network, CPU, memory, and the like, when the triggers arefired off, and use the associations to manipulate the alarms/timers tooccur at an optimal time to, for example, more efficiently utilizeresources.

One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a method for managingresources on a mobile device. The method comprises tracking triggersfrom multiple applications and use of resources resulting from thetriggers on the mobile device, determining associations between thetriggers and the use of resources, and manipulating, based on theassociations, some or all of the triggers to fire off at the same timeto optimize the use of resources by the triggers.

In one implementation, the method comprises manipulating some or all ofthe triggers by delaying the first and subsequent riggers to fire off atthe same time as the last trigger. In another implementation, the methodcomprises manipulating some or all of the triggers by delaying at leastone trigger and accelerating at least one trigger.

In one implementation, the method comprises identifying a specific typeof trigger from the triggers, and based on the associations and thespecific type of trigger, delaying the specific type of trigger for atime period. In one implementation, the associations are based on timebased analysis, frequency based analysis or time and frequency basedanalysis of the triggers and the use of resources.

In one implementation, the method further comprises detecting a patternin which a trigger fires off and based on the pattern, manipulating thetrigger to delay the trigger from firing off during a period of time.The trigger can be an alarm that brings the mobile device out of sleepmode in one implementation.

One embodiment of the present disclosure provides a mobile devicecapable of performing resource management to optimize use of resourceson the mobile device. The mobile device can track triggers from multipleapplications and corresponding use of a network resource resulting fromthe triggers on the mobile device, determine correlations between thetriggers and the corresponding use of the network resource andmanipulate, based on the correlations, timing of some or all of thetriggers to optimize the use of the network resource on the mobiledevice. In one implementation, the correlations are based on timeanalysis, frequency analysis or time and frequency analyses of thetriggers and the use of the network resource.

The triggers can include alarms and/or timers and can be used to performscheduled tasks that use the network resource on the mobile device. Themanipulation of timing of the triggers can also optimize the use ofbattery, CPU and memory resources.

In one implementation, the manipulation of timing of some or all of thetriggers includes delaying at least one trigger or accelerating at leastone trigger. In another implementation, manipulating timing of some orall of the triggers includes modifying initial values of thecorresponding triggers in the operating system.

In one implementation, the mobile device can determine, from thetracking, patterns in which the triggers fire off, and use the patternsin manipulating the timing of some of the triggers to prevent thetriggers from firing off when user activity is not predicted or when thebattery level is below a threshold.

One embodiment of the present disclosure provides a resource managementsystem for optimizing use of resources on a mobile device. The systemcan include an intelligent alarm manager that tracks triggers frommultiple applications and a resource utilization tracker that trackscorresponding use of a network resource resulting from the triggers onthe mobile device. The system includes an alarm-resource associationdetector 220 that can determine correlations between the triggers andthe corresponding use of the network resource. The system also includesan alarm manipulator that can manipulate, based on the correlations,timing of some or all of the triggers to optimize the use of the networkresource (or multiple network resources) on the mobile device. In oneimplementation, the correlations are based on time analysis, frequencyanalysis or time and frequency analyses of the triggers and the use ofthe network resource.

The triggers can include alarms or timers and can be used to performscheduled tasks that use the network resource on the mobile device. Themanipulation of timing of the triggers can also optimize the use ofbattery, CPU and memory resources.

In one implementation, the alarm manipulator can manipulate timing ofsome or all of the triggers by delaying at least one trigger oraccelerating at least one trigger. In another implementation, the alarmmanipulator can manipulate timing of some or all of the triggers bymodifying initial values of the corresponding triggers in the operatingsystem.

In one implementation, a resource usage pattern detector can determine,from the tracking, patterns in which the triggers fire off, and thepatterns can be used by the alarm manipulator in manipulating the timingof some of the triggers to prevent the triggers from firing off whenuser activity is not predicted or when the battery level is below athreshold.

One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a computer-readablestorage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processorcauses the processor to track triggers from multiple applications andcorresponding use of a network resource resulting from the triggers on amobile device, determine correlations between the triggers and thecorresponding use of the network resource and manipulate, based on thecorrelations, timing or frequency of some or all of the triggers tosynchronize at least some of the triggers to optimize the use of thenetwork resource on the mobile device.

In one implementation, the triggers include alarms or timers thatperform scheduled tasks and utilize the network resource on the mobiledevice. In another implementation, manipulating timing or frequency ofsome or all of the triggers includes modifying initial values of thecorresponding triggers in the operating system. The manipulation oftiming of the triggers can further optimize the use of battery, CPU,memory and/or other resources.

As used herein, triggers include alarms and timers used for performingscheduled tasks. Triggers, alarms and timers have been usedinterchangeably herein. The scheduled tasks can use resources such as,but not limited to: battery/power, network, CPU, memory or a combinationthereof.

These and various other embodiments and implementations of the disclosedsystems and methods are described in the following sections.

FIG. 1A-1 depicts a diagram 118 illustrating example resourceutilization tracking and intelligent alarm management of triggers acrossmultiple applications on a mobile device via an intelligent alarmmanipulator and resource tracker module 114 having an intelligent alarmmanager 115 and a resource utilization tracker 116. In someimplementations, the functionality of the intelligent alarm manager 115and the resource utilization tracker 116 may be distributed across moreor less components.

Applications 101, 105 and 107 are example applications of a mobiledevice. The applications can set alarms for different times to performdifferent tasks. For example, application 101 sets an alarm A1 for T+5seconds, application 105 sets an alarm A2 for T+10 seconds andapplication 107 sets an alarm A3 for T+15 seconds. The alarms A1, A2 andA3 are intercepted and/or tracked by the intelligent alarm manager 115.The alarms A1, A2 and A3 use resources 102, including but not limitedto: battery 109, network 111, CPU 113, or the like, when they fire off.The resource utilization tracker 116 tracks or monitors the usage ofvarious resources by the alarms A1, A2 and A3 or tasks triggered by thealarms. For example, assuming that the alarm A1 wakes up the mobiledevice from the sleep mode, when the alarm A1 is triggered, the mobiledevice's battery/power resource and CPU resource can be utilized.

The intelligent alarm manager 115 queries a resource utilization tracker116 to get intelligent time and/or resource utilization information fromthe resource utilization tracker 116. The intelligent alarm manager 115determines associations between alarms A1, A2 and A3 and resource usagebased on the received information, and determines an actual or optimaltime at which the alarms A1, A3 and A3 can be triggered to optimizeresource utilization. The intelligent alarm manager 115 manipulates thealarms A1, A3 and A3 to, for example, T+15 seconds and sets this time inthe operating system (OS) 162. The alarms A1, A2 and A3 then execute atthe manipulated time of T+15 seconds or substantially close to themanipulated time of T+15 seconds. When the alarms execute, theapplications use resources such as resources 102.

FIGS. 1A-2 and 1A-3 depict timing diagrams illustrating triggerprofiles, network activity profiles and power consumption profilesbefore and after optimization by the intelligent alarm manipulator andresource tracker.

Referring to FIG. 1A-2, an initial profile timing diagram 180illustrates three applications APP1, APP2 and APP3 triggering theiralarms/timers at different times, as observed or tracked by theintelligent alarm manager 115. The resource utilization tracker 1A-3tracks the resource use to determine whether the alarms/timers lead tonetwork activity, power consumption, or other resource use. In thisexample, the network activity profile 181 shows corresponding networkactivity triggered by the alarms/timers from the trigger profile 180.The network activity can include, for example, turning on or powering ofradio of the mobile device, establishing a network connection,uploading/downloading data over the network connection, etc.Corresponding to the network activity profile 181, is the powerconsumption profile 182 that shows the power consumption pattern on themobile device before optimization.

Referring to FIG. 1A-3, the optimized trigger profile 183 shows that thetiming of the alarms/timers of the three applications have been adjustedor manipulated such that some of the alarms/timers are triggered at thesame time or at approximately the same time. The network activityprofile 184 shows that there are fewer connections over the same periodof time and more amount of data can be transmitted or received perconnection. The power consumption profile 186 also shows improvement inthe amount of power consumed. Typically, when a radio transitions froman idle state to a high power state, the power consumption rises fromthe lowest level to the maximum level. After the network activity iscompleted, the power consumption drops to a lower level before finallydropping to the lowest level corresponding to the idle state. By havingfewer radio state transitions, and by sending/receiving a larger amountof data per radio connection by manipulating the alarms/timers, theoverall power consumption can be reduced.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host server100 facilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices 150), and anapplication server or content provider 110, or other servers such as anad server 120A, promotional content server 120B, or an e-coupon server120C in a wireless network (or broadband network) for resourceconservation. The host server can further interact with mobile or clientdevices 150 for getting reports and/or updates on resource usage,savings, and the like.

The client devices 150 can be any system and/or device, and/or anycombination of devices/systems that is able to establish a connection,including wired, wireless, cellular connections with another device, aserver and/or other systems such as host server 100 and/or applicationserver/content provider 110. Client devices 150 will typically include adisplay and/or other output functionalities to present information anddata exchanged between among the devices 150 and/or the host server 100and/or application server/content provider 110. The applicationserver/content provider 110 can by any server including third partyservers or service/content providers further including advertisement,promotional content, publication, or electronic coupon servers orservices. Similarly, separate advertisement servers 120A, promotionalcontent servers 120B, and/or e-Coupon servers 120C as applicationservers or content providers are illustrated by way of example.

For example, the client devices 150 can include mobile, hand held orportable devices or non-portable devices and can be any of, but notlimited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, a computer cluster, orportable devices including, a notebook, a laptop computer, a handheldcomputer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a smartphone, a PDA, a BLACKBERRY device, a TREO, a handheld tablet (e.g. anIPAD, a GALAXY, XOOM Tablet, etc.), a tablet PC, a thin-client, a handheld console, a hand held gaming device or console, an IPHONE, a headmountable device, and/or any other portable, mobile, hand held devices,etc., running on any platform or any operating system (e.g., MAC-basedOS (OS X, iOS, etc.), WINDOWS-based OS (WINDOWS MOBILE, WINDOWS 7,etc.), ANDROID, BLACKBERRY OS, Embedded LINUX platforms, Palm OS,SYMBIAN platform. In one embodiment, the client devices 150 and the hostserver 100, are coupled via a network 106. In some embodiments, thedevices 150 and host server 100 may be directly connected to oneanother.

The input mechanism on client devices 150 can include touch screenkeypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, motiondetector (e.g., including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), alight sensor, capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor,proximity sensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector(e.g., electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope,accelerometer), or a combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices150 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can beused in the disclosed technology in acquiring context awareness at theclient device 150. Context awareness at client devices 150 generallyincludes, by way of example but not limitation, client device 150operation or state acknowledgement, management, useractivity/behavior/interaction awareness, detection, sensing, tracking,trending, and/or application (e.g., mobile applications) type, behavior,activity, operating state, etc.

Context awareness in the present disclosure also includes knowledge anddetection of network side contextual data and can include networkinformation such as network capacity, bandwidth, traffic, type ofnetwork/connectivity, and/or any other operational state data. Networkside contextual data can be received from and/or queried from networkservice providers (e.g., cell provider 112 and/or Internet serviceproviders) of the network 106 and/or network 108 (e.g., by the hostserver and/or devices 150). In addition to application context awarenessas determined from the client 150 side, the application contextawareness may also be received from or obtained/queried from therespective application/service providers 110 (by the host 100 and/orclient devices 150).

The host server 100 can use, for example, contextual informationobtained for client devices 150, networks 106/108, applications (e.g.,mobile applications), application server/provider 110, or anycombination of the above, to manage the traffic in the system to satisfydata needs of the client devices 150 (e.g., to satisfy application orany other request including HTTP request) and/or optimize resource usageon the mobile device. In one embodiment, the traffic is managed by thehost server 100 to satisfy data requests made in response to explicit ornon-explicit user 103 requests and/or device/application maintenancetasks. The traffic can be managed such that network consumption, forexample, use of the cellular network is conserved for effective andefficient bandwidth utilization. In addition, the host server 100 canmanage and coordinate such traffic in the system such that use ofdevice-side resources (e.g., including but not limited to battery powerconsumption, radio use, processor/memory use) are optimized with ageneral philosophy for resource conservation while still optimizingperformance and user experience.

For example, in context of battery conservation, the device 150 canobserve user activity (for example, by observing user keystrokes,backlight status, or other signals via one or more input mechanisms,etc.) and alters device 150 behaviors and/or timing of triggers. Thedevice 150 can also request the host server 100 to alter the behaviorfor network resource consumption based on user activity or behavior.

In one embodiment, the traffic management for resource conservation isperformed using a distributed system between the host server 100 andclient device 150. The distributed system can include proxy server andcache components on the server side 100 and on the device/client side,for example, as shown by the server cache 135 on the server 100 side andthe local cache 185 on the client 150 side.

Functions and techniques disclosed for context aware traffic managementfor resource conservation in networks (e.g., network 106 and/or 108) anddevices 150, can reside in a distributed proxy and cache system. Theproxy and cache system can be distributed between, and reside on, agiven client device 150 in part or in whole and/or host server 100 inpart or in whole. The distributed proxy and cache system are illustratedwith further reference to the example diagram shown in FIG. 1C.

In one embodiment, client devices 150 communicate with the host server100 and/or the application server 110 over network 106, which can be acellular network and/or a broadband network. To facilitate overalltraffic management between devices 150 and various applicationservers/content providers 110 to implement network (bandwidthutilization) and device resource (e.g., battery consumption), the hostserver 100 can communicate with the application server/providers 110over the network 108, which can include the Internet (e.g., a broadbandnetwork).

In general, the networks 106 and/or 108, over which the client devices150, the host server 100, and/or application server 110 communicate, maybe a cellular network, a broadband network, a telephonic network, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as anintranet and/or the extranet, or any combination thereof. For example,the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS,cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail,VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, suchas, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, UDP, HTTP, DNS, FTP,UPnP, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The networks 106 and/or 108 can be any collection of distinct networksoperating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity tothe client devices 150 and the host server 100 and may appear as one ormore networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment,communications to and from the client devices 150 can be achieved by, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, broadbandnetwork, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment,communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, suchas secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks,such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal areanetwork (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network(MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN),or any broadband network, and further enabled with technologies such as,by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Personal Communications Service (PCS), Bluetooth, WiFi, Fixed WirelessData, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, LTE Advanced, mobileWiMax, WiMax 2, WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates forGSM evolution (EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhancedGPRS, iBurst, UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, UMTS-TDD, 1×RTT, EV-DO,messaging protocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging andpresence protocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instantmessaging and presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, orany other wireless data networks, broadband networks, or messagingprotocols.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server 100 and device 150 which facilitatesnetwork traffic management between the device 150 and an applicationserver or content provider 110, or other servers such as an ad server120A, promotional content server 120B, or an e-coupon server 120C forresource conservation and content caching The proxy system distributedamong the host server 100 and the device 150 can further trackalarms/timers implemented by applications on a device and resources usedby such alarms/timers to determine associations using which the proxysystem can manipulate the alarms/timers to occur at an optimal time toreduce resource usage.

The distributed proxy and cache system can include, for example, theproxy server 125 (e.g., remote proxy) and the server cache, 135components on the server side. The server-side proxy 125 and cache 135can, as illustrated, reside internal to the host server 100. Inaddition, the proxy server 125 and cache 135 on the server-side can bepartially or wholly external to the host server 100 and in communicationvia one or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the proxyserver 125 may be external to the host server and the server cache 135may be maintained at the host server 100. Alternatively, the proxyserver 125 may be within the host server 100 while the server cache isexternal to the host server 100. In addition, each of the proxy server125 and the cache 135 may be partially internal to the host server 100and partially external to the host server 100. The applicationserver/content provider 110 can by any server including third partyservers or service/content providers further including advertisement,promotional content, publication, or electronic coupon servers orservices. Similarly, separate advertisement servers 120A, promotionalcontent servers 120B, and/or e-Coupon servers 120C as applicationservers or content providers are illustrated by way of example.

The distributed system can also, include, in one embodiment, client-sidecomponents, including by way of example but not limitation, a localproxy 175 (e.g., a mobile client on a mobile device) and/or a localcache 185, which can, as illustrated, reside internal to the device 150(e.g., a mobile device).

In addition, the client-side proxy 175 and local cache 185 can bepartially or wholly external to the device 150 and in communication viaone or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the local proxy175 may be external to the device 150 and the local cache 185 may bemaintained at the device 150. Alternatively, the local proxy 175 may bewithin the device 150 while the local cache 185 is external to thedevice 150. In addition, each of the proxy 175 and the cache 185 may bepartially internal to the host server 100 and partially external to thehost server 100.

In one embodiment, the distributed system can include an optionalcaching proxy server 199. The caching proxy server 199 can be acomponent which is operated by the application server/content provider110, the host server 100, or a network service provider 112, and or anycombination of the above to facilitate network traffic management fornetwork and device resource conservation. Proxy server 199 can be used,for example, for caching content to be provided to the device 150, forexample, from one or more of, the application server/provider 110, hostserver 100, and/or a network service provider 112. Content caching canalso be entirely or partially performed by the remote proxy 125 tosatisfy application requests or other data requests at the device 150.

In context aware traffic management and optimization for resourceconservation in a network (e.g., cellular or other wireless networks),characteristics of user activity/behavior and/or application behavior ata mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) 150 can be tracked by thelocal proxy 175 and communicated, over the network 106 to the proxyserver 125 component in the host server 100, for example, as connectionmetadata. The proxy server 125 which in turn is coupled to theapplication server/provider 110 provides content and data to satisfyrequests made at the device 150.

In addition, the local proxy 175 can identify and retrieve mobile deviceproperties, including one or more of, battery level, network that thedevice is registered on, radio state, or whether the mobile device isbeing used (e.g., interacted with by a user). In some instances, thelocal proxy 175 can delay, expedite (prefetch), and/or modify data priorto transmission to the proxy server 125, when appropriate.

The local database 185 can be included in the local proxy 175 or coupledto the local proxy 175 and can be queried for a locally stored responseto the data request prior to the data request being forwarded on to theproxy server 125. Locally cached responses can be used by the localproxy 175 to satisfy certain application requests of the mobile device150, by retrieving cached content stored in the cache storage 185, whenthe cached content is still valid.

Similarly, the proxy server 125 of the host server 100 can also delay,expedite, or modify data from the local proxy prior to transmission tothe content sources (e.g., the application server/content provider 110).In addition, the proxy server 125 uses device properties and connectionmetadata to generate rules for satisfying request of applications on themobile device 150. The proxy server 125 can gather real time trafficinformation about requests of applications for later use in optimizingsimilar connections with the mobile device 150 or other mobile devices.

In general, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 are transparentto the multiple applications executing on the mobile device. The localproxy 175 is generally transparent to the operating system or platformof the mobile device and may or may not be specific to devicemanufacturers. In some instances, the local proxy 175 is optionallycustomizable in part or in whole to be device specific. In someembodiments, the local proxy 175 may be bundled into a wireless model, afirewall, and/or a router.

In one embodiment, the host server 100 can in some instances, utilizethe store and forward functions of a short message service center (SMSC)112, such as that provided by the network service provider, incommunicating with the device 150 in achieving network trafficmanagement. Note that 112 can also utilize any other type of alternativechannel including USSD or other network control mechanisms. The hostserver 100 can forward content or HTTP responses to the SMSC 112 suchthat it is automatically forwarded to the device 150 if available, andfor subsequent forwarding if the device 150 is not currently available.

In general, the disclosed distributed proxy and cache system allowsoptimization of network usage, for example, by serving requests from thelocal cache 185, the local proxy 175 reduces the number of requests thatneed to be satisfied over the network 106. Further, the local proxy 175and the proxy server 125 may filter irrelevant data from thecommunicated data. In addition, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server125 can also accumulate low priority data and send it in batches toavoid the protocol overhead of sending individual data fragments. Thelocal proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can also compress or transcodethe traffic, reducing the amount of data sent over the network 106and/or 108. The signaling traffic in the network 106 and/or 108 can bereduced, as the networks are now used less often and the network trafficcan be synchronized among individual applications.

With respect to the battery life of the mobile device 150, by servingapplication or content requests from the local cache 185, the localproxy 175 can reduce the number of times the radio module is powered up.The local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can work in conjunction toaccumulate low priority data and send it in batches to reduce the numberof times and/or amount of time when the radio is powered up. The localproxy 175 can synchronize the network use by performing the batched datatransfer for all connections simultaneously.

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system. The distributed system can include,for example the following components:

Client Side Proxy 175: a component installed in the smartphone, mobiledevice or wireless device 150 that interfaces with device's operatingsystem, as well as with data services and applications installed in thedevice. The client side proxy 175 is typically compliant with and ableto operate with standard or state of the art networking protocols.

The server side proxy 125 can include one or more servers that caninterface with third party application servers (e.g., 199), mobileoperator's network (which can be proxy 199 or an additional server thatis not illustrated) and/or the client side proxy 175. In general, theserver side proxy 125 can be compliant with and is generally able tooperate with standard or state of the art networking protocols and/orspecifications for interacting with mobile network elements and/or thirdparty servers.

Reporting and Usage Analytics Server 174: The Reporting and UsageAnalytics system or component 174 can collect information from theclient side 175 and/or the server side 125 and provides the necessarytools for producing reports and usage analytics can used for analyzingtraffic and signaling data. Such analytics can be used by the proxysystem in managing/reducing network traffic or by the network operatorin monitoring their networks for possible improvements and enhancements.Note that the reporting and usage analytics system/component 174 asillustrated, may be a server separate from the server-side proxy 125, orit may be a component of the server-side proxy 125, residing partiallyor wholly therein.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient side components in a distributed proxy and cache system.

The client side components 175 can include software components or agentsinstalled on the mobile device that enables traffic optimization andperforms the related functionalities on the client side. Components ofthe client side proxy 175 can operate transparently for end users andapplications 163. The client side proxy 175 can be installed on mobiledevices for optimization to take place, and it can effectuate changes onthe data routes. Once data routing is modified, the client side proxy175 can respond to application requests to service providers or hostservers, in addition to or instead of letting those applications 163access data network directly. In general, applications 163 on the mobiledevice will not notice that the client side proxy 175 is responding totheir requests. Some example components of the client side proxy 175 aredescribed as follows:

Device State Monitor 121: The device state monitor 121 can beresponsible for identifying several states and metrics in the device,such as network status, display status, battery level, etc. such thatthe remaining components in the client side proxy 175 can operate andmake decisions according to device state, acting in an optimal way ineach state.

Traffic Recognizer 122: The traffic recognizer 122 analyzes all trafficbetween the wireless device applications 163 and their respective hostservers in order to identify recurrent patterns. Supported transportprotocols include, for example, DNS, HTTP and HTTPS, such that trafficthrough those ports is directed to the client side proxy 175. Whileanalyzing traffic, the client side proxy 175 can identify recurringpolling patterns which can be candidates to be performed remotely by theserver side proxy 125, and send to the protocol optimizer 123.

Protocol Optimizer 123: The protocol optimizer 123 can implement thelogic of serving recurrent request from the local cache 185 instead ofallowing those request go over the network to the serviceprovider/application host server. One is its tasks is to eliminate orminimize the need to send requests to the network, positively affectingnetwork congestion and device battery life.

Local Cache 185: The local cache 185 can store responses to recurrentrequests, and can be used by the Protocol Optimizer 123 to sendresponses to the applications 163.

Traffic Scheduler 124: The traffic scheduler 124 can temporally movecommunications to optimize usage of device resources by unifyingkeep-alive signaling so that some or all of the different applications163 can send keep-alive messages at the same time (traffic pipelining).Traffic scheduler 124 may also decide to delay transmission of data thatis not relevant at a given time (for example, when the device is notactively used).

Policy Manager 125: The policy manager 125 can store and enforce trafficoptimization and reporting policies provisioned by a Policy ManagementServer (PMS). At the client side proxy 175 first start, trafficoptimization and reporting policies (policy profiles) that is to beenforced in a particular device can be provisioned by the PolicyManagement Server.

Watch Dog 127: The watch dog 127 can monitor the client side proxy 175operating availability. In case the client side proxy 175 is not workingdue to a failure or because it has been disabled, the watchdog 127 canreset DNS routing rules information and can restore original DNSsettings for the device to continue working until the client side proxy175 service is restored.

Reporting Agent 126: The reporting agent 126 can gather informationabout the events taking place in the device and sends the information tothe Reporting Server. Event details are stored temporarily in the deviceand transferred to reporting server only when the data channel state isactive. If the client side proxy 175 doesn't send records withintwenty-four hours, the reporting agent 126 may attempt to open theconnection and send recorded entries or, in case there are no entries instorage, an empty reporting packet. All reporting settings areconfigured in the policy management server.

Push Client 128: The push client 128 can be responsible for the trafficto between the server side proxy 125 and the client side proxy 175. Thepush client 128 can send out service requests like content updaterequests and policy update requests, and receives updates to thoserequests from the server side proxy 125. In addition, push client 128can send data to a reporting server (e.g., the reporting and/or usageanalytics system which may be internal to or external to the server sideproxy 125).

The proxy server 199 has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a webserver by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and othernetwork lookups for a group of clients sharing network resources. Theproxy server 199 is optional. The distributed proxy and cache system(125 and/or 175) allows for a flexible proxy configuration using eitherthe proxy 199, additional proxy(s) in operator's network, or integratingboth proxies 199 and an operator's or other third-party's proxy.

The intelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker 114, which isdescribed in detail in FIG. 2, can monitor and track triggers frommultiple applications on the mobile device 150 and corresponding usageof resources to determine correlations between triggers and resourceusage and use such correlations to manipulate the timing of triggers toconserve resources on the mobile device.

FIG. 1F illustrates a diagram of the example components on the serverside of the distributed proxy and cache system.

The server side 125 of the distributed system can include, for example arelay server 142, which interacts with a traffic harmonizer 144, apolling server 145 and/or a policy management server 143. Each of thevarious components can communicate with the client side proxy 175, orother third party (e.g., application server/service provider 110 and/orother proxy 199) and/or a reporting and usage analytics system. Someexample components of the server side proxy 125 is described as follows:

Relay Server 142: The relay server 142 is the routing agent in thedistributed proxy architecture. The relay server 142 manages connectionsand communications with components on the client-side proxy 175installed on devices and provides an administrative interface forreports, provisioning, platform setup, and so on.

Notification Server 141: The notification server 141 is a module able toconnect to an operator's SMSC gateways and deliver SMS notifications tothe client-side proxy 175. SMS notifications can be used when an IP linkis not currently active, in order to avoid the client-side proxy 175from activating a connection over the wireless data channel, thusavoiding additional signaling traffic. However, if the IP connectionhappens to be open for some other traffic, the notification server 141can use it for sending the notifications to the client-side proxy 175.The user database can store operational data including endpoint(MSISDN), organization and Notification server 141 gateway for eachresource (URIs or URLs).

Traffic Harmonizer 144: The traffic harmonizer 144 can be responsiblefor communication between the client-side proxy 175 and the pollingserver 145. The traffic harmonizer 144 connects to the polling server145 directly or through the data storage 130, and to the client over anyopen or proprietary protocol such as the 7TP, implemented for trafficoptimization. The traffic harmonizer 144 can be also responsible fortraffic pipelining on the server side: if there's cached content in thedatabase for the same client, this can be sent over to the client in onemessage.

Polling Server 145: The polling server 145 can poll third partyapplication servers on behalf of applications that are being optimized).If a change occurs (i.e. new data available) for an application, thepolling server 145 can report to the traffic harmonizer 144 which inturn sends a notification message to the client-side proxy 175 for it toclear the cache and allow application to poll application serverdirectly.

Policy Management Server 143: The policy management server (PMS) 143allows administrators to configure and store policies for theclient-side proxies 175 (device clients). It also allows administratorsto notify the client-side proxies 175 about policy changes. Using thepolicy management server 143, each operator can configure the policiesto work in the most efficient way for the unique characteristics of eachparticular mobile operator's network.

Reporting and Usage Analytics Component: The Reporting and UsageAnalytics component or system collects information from the client side175 and/or from the server side 125, and provides the tools forproducing reports and usage analytics that operators can use foranalyzing application signaling and data consumption.

Most mobile applications regularly poll their application servers tocheck for new data. Often there is no new data or the content has notchanged, so the exchange of data through the mobile network isunnecessary. As the number of mobile phones and their applicationsincrease, the amount of this needless polling grows. Since applicationsare not coordinated and poll at different times and intervals, any givenphone may frequently generate signal traffic. This causes multipleunnecessary radio activations, consuming power and shortening batterylife.

In one embodiment, a signaling optimizer reduces network requests to aminimum by caching content in the client and letting its own server pollfor changes in the network. When a mobile phone's client side proxy(e.g., local proxy) 175 detects a recurring pattern for a resource, suchas an email application, its response content is stored locally in aclient cache so similar requests from that application get theirresponse from the local cache, rather than signaling the network, asillustrated in the example diagram of FIG. 1G. The server-side proxy(e.g., the proxy server) 125 can poll for changes in the network. Whennew content or updated content is detected from the polling, theserver-side proxy 125 can send a notification to the client-side proxy175. In response to the notification of new or updated content, theclient-side proxy 175 allows the request from the application to go toits application server such that new or updated content can be fetched.

As an example, someone who typically gets only 10 emails a day may havephone's email application poll the network for new email every 15minutes, or 96 times a day, with around 90% or more of the pollsresulting in the same response: there are no new emails. The client sideproxy (e.g., local proxy) 175 can recognize this request-responsepattern, and intercept the application's poll requests, returning thelocally cached response of “no new emails”. This way the device radio isnot turned on by this particular application, and the poll doesn't useany network resources. The server (e.g., host server 100, proxy server125), located in the network, can monitor the email application serveron behalf of the user's email application. When new email is available,the server can notify the user's client side proxy 175 to not use thecached “no new emails” response for the next poll request. Instead ofgoing to the local client cache, the email application polls itsapplication server over the network and receives the new content.

The signaling optimizer can be configured and managed using differentrule sets for different device types, user types, wireless networks, andapplications. Optimization rules can be updated at any time, so thechanges can be applied immediately when an application upgrades orchanges happen in the mobile network. The protocols that can beoptimized include, but are not limited to: HTTP, HTTPS and DNS.

In one embodiment, systems and methods of intelligent alarm manipulatorand resource tracker can be used alone or in combination with thesignaling optimizer to further reduce network requests by consolidatingor changing the timing of requests such that use of resources includingnetwork, battery, CPU, memory and the like is reduced.

In the example above, when the server-side proxy 125 notifies the user'sclient side proxy 175 to not use the cached “no new emails” response forthe next poll request and in response, the email application polls itsapplication server over the network to receive the new content, theintelligent alarm manipulator can manipulate the timing of that pollrequest and/or poll requests from other applications (e.g., weather app,sports new app) such that the poll request from the email applicationcoincides with other poll requests from other applications. When thepoll requests from multiple applications are synchronized, the amount ofdata transmitted per connection can be maximized and the number of radioactivations can be reduced. Other resources such as power resources canbe conserved and CPU efficiency can be increased.

FIG. 1H illustrates an example diagram of an example client-serverarchitecture of the distributed proxy and cache system.

In the client-server architecture, the client side proxy 175 (e.g.,local proxy) is residing on the mobile or client devices. The clientside proxy 175 can communicate both directly to the Internet (usuallyvia an operator proxy) and to the server side proxy (e.g., proxy server)125, or the host server 100. The proxy server 125 communicates to theInternet and to the operator's SMSC 112.

As depicted, the client side proxy 175 can send a request directly tothe Internet. This can happen after requests have been analyzed todetect optimizable patterns, for example. The client side proxy 175 can,in one implementation, send a request to the server (e.g., host server100, proxy server 125), for example, to initiate server polling, toreports logs or to get new configuration. The proxy server 125 can senda request to the Internet to, for example, validate cached content. Inone implementation, the proxy server 125 can send a request to the SMSC112, for example, to send a cache invalidate message or policy updatemessage to the client-side proxy 175.

In one implementation, the client side proxy 175 may not maintain anopen connection with the proxy server 125, but may connect to the proxyserver 125 only in case there's a need to start polling an origin server110, to report logs or to get new configuration. For signaling optimizerfeature, the proxy server 125 can notify the client side proxy 175 whenthe content, that has been polled, has changed. The proxy server 125 cansend a request to invalidate cache in the client side proxy 125. Whenthe application connects to that particular origin server (e.g., contentserver 110) the next time, it can first fetch the latest content fromthe proxy server 125 and then directly connect to the origin server 110.For the policy enforcer and/or the network protector features, the proxyserver 125 can notify the client side proxy 175 when there's newconfiguration to be fetched from the server. When the proxy server 125needs to communicate with the client side proxy 175, it can use aconnection that is already open for some other request. If theconnection is not open, the proxy server 125 can send a notification(e.g., SMS) to the client side proxy 175.

FIG. 1I depicts an example diagram illustrating data flows betweenexample client side components in a distributed proxy and cache system.Traffic from applications (e.g., App1, App2, App3 to AppN), client sideproxy (e.g., local proxy) 175, IP Routing Tables (e.g., in the AndroidOperating System Layer), Network Access Layer and Wireless Network aredepicted.

In one implementation, non-optimized application traffic flow, such astraffic from App1, can completely bypass the client side proxy 175components and proceed directly through the operating system layer(e.g., the Android OS layer) and Network Access Layer to the wirelessnetwork. Traffic that that is not optimized can include, but is notlimited to: rich media, like video and audio, as well as traffic fromnetworks and applications that has been configured to bypassoptimization and traffic pending optimization, and the like. In oneembodiment, all traffic can be configured to bypass the clientside/server side proxy.

In another implementation, optimized application traffic, such astraffic from App2, can be redirected from the application to the clientside proxy 175. By default, this can be traffic on ports 80 (HTTP) and53 (DNS), and selected traffic on port 443 (HTTPS), for example.However, traffic to other ports can be configured to be directed to theclient side proxy.

In yet another implementation, traffic flow can be between the clientside proxy 175 and the origin servers (e.g., content server 110) via theInternet and/or between the client side proxy 175 and the server sideproxy (e.g., proxy server) 125.

FIG. 2 depicts example components of a mobile device 150 having theintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker 114. In oneembodiment, the mobile device 150 can include one or more applications202-206, an operating system (OS) 162, other platform specific and/orother modules 208 such as network interface components, sensorcomponents, native applications, user activity detectors, applicationstate detectors (e.g., foreground/background state), other contextualdetectors, other components described in FIG. 1E, and the like. Theintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker module 114, in oneembodiment, can include an intelligent alarm manager 115 having anapplication alarm detector 216, an alarm-resource association detector220 and an alarm manipulator 220, a resource utilization tracker 116having a battery resource usage tracker 226, a network resource usagetracker 228, a CPU resource usage tracker 230, a memory resource usagetracker 232 and a resource usage pattern detector 218, a mode selector236, an application selector 238, a user interface module 240 and aresource usage reporting module 240. Additional or less modules orcomponents can be included in the intelligent alarm manipulator andresource tracker module 114. In one implementation, one or more of thecomponents can be consolidated into a single component, and/or a singlecomponent can be further divided into multiple components.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the intelligent alarmmanipulator and resource tracker module 114 is a component residing inthe local proxy 175. In other embodiments, the module 114 can be anapplication that an end user can download and install on the mobiledevice 150. In some other embodiments, the module 114 may be a part ofthe OS 162. In some embodiments, the module 114 operates in a mannerthat is transparent to the applications (e.g., 202-206) that are beingoptimized.

In one embodiment, the intelligent alarm manager 115 can detect orintercept alarms/timers and determine associations or correlationsbetween alarms/timers used by mobile applications to schedule tasks andcorresponding use of resources by the alarms/timers when they fire off.The application alarm detector 216 can detect, intercept and/or trackalarms/timers from multiple applications before or as they are set, oras they occur. Mobile applications can use alarms, timers or othertrigger mechanisms to perform periodic or scheduled tasks. These taskscan use network, battery, CPU, memory and/or other resources. Forexample, an application may use a timer to poll a server according to apolling schedule to check for an update, which can activate (or powerup) the wireless radio and use power (e.g., typically tens of seconds ona 3G connection). Thus, the task of polling a server can result in theutilization of network resources (e.g., use of radio), power/batteryresource (e.g., turning the radio on and off consumes power), CPUresource, and memory resource, among others. Similarly, someapplications can use alarms to wake up the mobile device 150 from asleep mode to do a task. The waking up can consume battery/powerresources.

The use of the network resources (e.g., radio use, use of networkbandwidth), power/battery, CPU, memory, and the like by thealarms/timers across multiple applications can be tracked by theresource utilization tracker 116, in one embodiment. For example, thebattery resource usage tracker 226 can track the battery/power usagewhen alarms from applications 204-206 are fired off. The networkresource usage tracker 228 can track network usage (e.g., radio turnedon, length of time radio remains on, amount of data per connection,etc.) of tasks triggered by the alarms from applications 204-206. TheCPU resource usage tracker 230 can track, for example, the time taken toprocess the tasks or instructions triggered by the alarms fromapplications 204-206. The memory resource usage tracker 232 can track,for example, the memory used (e.g., 70% of the allocated memory) by thetasks or instructions triggered by the alarms from applications 204-206.The resource utilization tracker 116 can track the use of multipleresources across multiple applications, and provide the gathered and/ordetermined resource usage information to the intelligent alarm manager115 improve resource usage efficiency.

In one embodiment, the alarm-resource association detector 220 candetect or determine associations or correlations, if any, between thealarms/timers from multiple applications and corresponding resourceusage (e.g., battery, network, CPU, memory, etc.) as tracked by theresource utilization tracker 116. The application alarm detector 216 candetect alarms firing off at different times from multiple applicationsand the resource utilization tracker 116 can provide the resourceutilization information tracked during the firing of the alarms. Usingthese information, the alarm-resource association detector 220 candetermine one or more resources consumed by the triggering of which oneor more alarms when they fire off.

For example, the alarm-resource association detector 220 can examine,analyze and/or process the tracked resource utilization information. Ifa spike in battery/power use, CPU use, memory use, or network activitymatching the time and/or periodicity of the alarms/timers is detectedfrom the examination, the alarm-resource association detector 220 canconclude that the alarms/timers are correlated or associated with theresource exhibiting the matching resource utilization pattern. Theseassociations between the alarms of different applications and theresultant use of resources can be documented by the alarm resourceassociation detector 220 and/or the resource usage reporting module 242.

In one embodiment, the alarm/timer manipulator 222 can analyze theassociations between alarms/timers of multiple applications andresultant use of resources when they fire off, as determined by thealarm-resource association detector 222. Based on the analyzing, thealarm/timer manipulator 222 can intelligently make decisions andmanipulate the alarms/timers across multiple applications such that theat least some of the alarms/timers of multiple applications aresynchronized (e.g., occur at the same time). Such manipulation can helpachieve savings in resource utilization. In one implementation, theintelligent decision making for manipulation of alarms/timers can haveminimal or no adverse effect or impact on the applications using thealarms/timers. For example, if alarm 1 from application 202 uses anetwork resource every one minute, and alarm 2 from application 204 usesthe same network resource every two minutes, based on the twoassociations, the alarm/timer manipulator 222 can manipulate alarms 1and 2 to fire off at the same time every one and a half minutes (averageof 1 minute and 2 minutes), or every two minutes (maximum of 1 minuteand 2 minute), thereby optimizing the use of network resources.

In one implementation, the alarm manipulator 222 can manipulate timingof alarms/timers by delaying at least one alarm/timer or accelerating atleast one alarm/timer to synchronize the alarms/timers. In anotherimplementation, the alarm manipulator 222 can manipulate timing ofalarms/timers by modifying initial values of the correspondingalarms/timers in the operating system.

In one implementation, the resource usage pattern detector 218 candetect or determine a pattern of firing off of alarms/timers. Forexample, some alarms/timers may be triggered during a certain period oftime such as during night time, or when the backlight of the mobiledevice is off. For example, in the Android platform, some applicationsuse alarms associated with wake locks (WakeLock) to bring the device outof sleep mode. When such a pattern is detected, the alarm/timermanipulator 222 can align multiple alarms/timers associated with wakelocks to trigger at the same time or approximately the same time, suchthat all the scheduled tasks can be done without waking up the mobiledevice repeatedly. This aligning of multiple alarms/timers based ondetected pattern can conserve battery power, improve CPU efficiency, andthe like.

In one embodiment, the resource usage pattern detector 218 candetermine, from the tracking, patterns in which the triggers fire off,and the patterns can be used by the alarm manipulator 222 inmanipulating the timing of some of the triggers to prevent the triggersfrom firing off when user activity is not predicted or when the batterylevel is below a threshold. For example, based on user behavior, if useof an application is not anticipated for a period of time, the alarmmanipulator can manipulate the timing of the alarm for that applicationto synchronize with other alarms that use the same resource(s) so thatthe resources of the mobile device can be optimized.

In one embodiment, the resource usage reporting module 242 can tracksavings in resource utilization from the manipulating of alarms, timersor other triggers. The resource usage reporting module 242 can generateon demand or periodic reports based on the tracked data. In oneimplementation, the tracked data can be displayed to the user via areporting user interface. The report may be provided to a user of themobile device and/or other entities or parties.

In one embodiment, the intelligent alarm manipulator and resourcetracker module 114 includes a mode selector 236 that allows a user toturn on or off the optimization of resource usage via intelligentmanipulation of the alarms/timers across multiple applications using auser interface provided by the user interface module 240. In oneimplementation, an application selector 238 can allow the user toexplicitly select or deselect applications for resource usageoptimization. In yet another implementation, the application selectorcan, based on determined associations between alarms/timers frommultiple applications and resource usage, identify one or moreapplications that can be candidates for resource usage optimization.

In one embodiment, the intelligent alarm manipulator and resourcetracker module 114 may be operational when the mobile device is onbattery power (e.g., the mode selector can be configured to turn on theresource optimization by default when on battery power). When the mobiledevice is being charged to an electrical outlet, some of the componentssuch as the resource tracker may be running. Alternately, theintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker module 114 may beoperational regardless of whether the device is charging or on battery.

FIG. 3 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a method 300 ofintelligent alarm manipulator and resource tracker. As depicted, themethod starts with intercepting of alarms/timers associated with mobileapplications on a mobile device for performing various tasks at block302. At block 304, usage of resources such as battery, network, CPU,memory, sensors (e.g., GPS receiver), vibration motor (e.g., vibrationalert), and the like by the alarms/timers can be tracked.

In one implementation, at block 306, associations, relationships,correlations, or the like between the alarms/timers and use of resourcescan be determined. In another implementation, at block 312, associationsbetween the alarms/timers, use of resources, and/or pattern use ofresources can be determined. Based on the associations, alarms/timerscan be manipulated (e.g., modified, delayed, accelerated, etc.) to causethe alarms/timers to fire off or be triggered all the same time at block308. The manipulation may be achieved in many ways. For example, ifthree different alarms (from the same application or from differentapplications) use radio to connect to respective servers at time T, T+5and T+15, the radio on time can be manipulated by setting the alarms toT+15. By way of another example, if two timers A1 and A2 are observed touse battery resource, and such use occurs during the night time, suchinformation can be used to manipulate the timers so that both A1 and A2go off at another time (e.g., the morning) instead of going off duringthe night time.

At block 310, the improvement or efficiency gained in resource usagefrom the manipulation of alarms/timers can be determined and/or tracked.The tracked data can be used for reporting to a user or other parties.

FIG. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

In the example of FIG. 4, the computer system 400 includes a processor,memory, non-volatile memory, and an interface device. Various commoncomponents (e.g., cache memory) are omitted for illustrative simplicity.The computer system 400 is intended to illustrate a hardware device onwhich any of the components depicted in the example of FIG. 2 (and anyother components described in this specification) can be implemented.The computer system 400 can be of any applicable known or convenienttype. The components of the computer system 400 can be coupled togethervia a bus or through some other known or convenient device.

The processor may be, for example, a conventional microprocessor such asan Intel Pentium microprocessor or Motorola power PC microprocessor. Oneof skill in the relevant art will recognize that the terms“machine-readable (storage) medium” or “computer-readable (storage)medium” include any type of device that is accessible by the processor.

The memory is coupled to the processor by, for example, a bus. Thememory can include, by way of example but not limitation, random accessmemory (RAM), such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). Thememory can be local, remote, or distributed.

The bus also couples the processor to the non-volatile memory and driveunit. The non-volatile memory is often a magnetic floppy or hard disk, amagnetic-optical disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), suchas a CD-ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM, a magnetic or optical card, or anotherform of storage for large amounts of data. Some of this data is oftenwritten, by a direct memory access process, into memory during executionof software in the computer 400. The non-volatile storage can be local,remote, or distributed. The non-volatile memory is optional becausesystems can be created with all applicable data available in memory. Atypical computer system will usually include at least a processor,memory, and a device (e.g., a bus) coupling the memory to the processor.

Software is typically stored in the non-volatile memory and/or the driveunit. Indeed, for large programs, it may not even be possible to storethe entire program in the memory. Nevertheless, it should be understoodthat for software to run, if necessary, it is moved to a computerreadable location appropriate for processing, and for illustrativepurposes, that location is referred to as the memory in this paper. Evenwhen software is moved to the memory for execution, the processor willtypically make use of hardware registers to store values associated withthe software, and local cache that, ideally, serves to speed upexecution. As used herein, a software program is assumed to be stored atany known or convenient location (from non-volatile storage to hardwareregisters) when the software program is referred to as “implemented in acomputer-readable medium.” A processor is considered to be “configuredto execute a program” when at least one value associated with theprogram is stored in a register readable by the processor.

The bus also couples the processor to the network interface device. Theinterface can include one or more of a modem or network interface. Itwill be appreciated that a modem or network interface can be consideredto be part of the computer system. The interface can include an analogmodem, isdn modem, cable modem, token ring interface, satellitetransmission interface (e.g. “direct PC”), or other interfaces forcoupling a computer system to other computer systems. The interface caninclude one or more input and/or output devices. The I/O devices caninclude, by way of example but not limitation, a keyboard, a mouse orother pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, and other inputand/or output devices, including a display device. The display devicecan include, by way of example but not limitation, a cathode ray tube(CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), or some other applicable known orconvenient display device. For simplicity, it is assumed thatcontrollers of any devices not depicted in the example of FIG. 8 residein the interface.

In operation, the computer system 400 can be controlled by operatingsystem software that includes a file management system, such as a diskoperating system. One example of operating system software withassociated file management system software is the family of operatingsystems known as Windows® from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,and their associated file management systems. Another example ofoperating system software with its associated file management systemsoftware is the Linux operating system and its associated filemanagement system. The file management system is typically stored in thenon-volatile memory and/or drive unit and causes the processor toexecute the various acts required by the operating system to input andoutput data and to store data in the memory, including storing files onthe non-volatile memory and/or drive unit.

Some portions of the detailed description may be presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capableof being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwisemanipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasonsof common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the methods of some embodiments. The requiredstructure for a variety of these systems will appear from thedescription below. In addition, the techniques are not described withreference to any particular programming language, and variousembodiments may thus be implemented using a variety of programminglanguages.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, an iPhone, aBlackberry, a processor, a telephone, a web appliance, a network router,switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine.

While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium isshown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shouldbe taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and thatcause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of thepresently disclosed technique and innovation.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of thedisclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processing units or processors in acomputer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elementsinvolving the various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fullyfunctioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that thedisclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machineor computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readablemedia, or computer-readable (storage) media include but are not limitedto recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memorydevices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, opticaldisks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital VersatileDisks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such asdigital and analog communication links.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling ofconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall referto this application as a whole and not to any particular portions ofthis application. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, thedisclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of thedisclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes orblocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/ormodified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of theseprocesses or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways.Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed inseries, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel,or may be performed at different times. Further any specific numbersnoted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employdiffering values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further embodiments of thedisclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theteachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its implementation details, while still beingencompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but alsoall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure underthe claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of thedisclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶6, other aspects may likewise be embodied as ameans-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied ina computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35U.S.C. § 112, ¶6 will begin with the words “means for”.) Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filingthe application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspectsof the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for managing resources on a mobiledevice, comprising: executing alarms set by multiple applicationsexecuting on the mobile device; acquiring a context awareness of themobile device, wherein the context awareness includes user activitydetection and a determination of whether the mobile device is charging;altering behavior of the mobile device to conserve resources based onthe user activity detection of the acquired context awareness, whereinthe user activity detection is based on a signal indicating useractivity at the mobile device, and wherein the behavior of the mobiledevice is altered when the user activity detection indicates that thereis no user activity at the mobile device and the mobile device is notcharging, and wherein the behavior of the mobile device is altered by:delaying a timing of one or more alarms for the multiple applications,wherein the timing is delayed such that the one or more delayed alarmsexecute within a window of time, wherein at least a subset of the one ormore delayed alarms are associated with one or more wakelocks, andwherein the subset of the one or more delayed alarms associated with oneor more wakelocks are delayed such that all the alarms associated with awakelock execute in alignment within the window of time; preventing anapplication from accessing device-side resources of the mobile devicebased on application settings, wherein the application settings includea user-selectable application selector that allows a user of the mobiledevice to enable the application to access device-side resources of themobile device before an alarm set by the application is executed inresponse to the user of the mobile device disabling restrictions for theapplication via the user-selectable application selector, and whereinthe user-selectable application selector of the application settingsallows the user of the mobile device to prevent the application fromaccessing device-side resources of the mobile device before an alarm setby the application is executed in response to the user of the mobiledevice enabling restrictions for the application via the user-selectableapplication selector.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device-sideresources of the mobile device include network resources and CPUresources.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the behavior of the mobiledevice is altered by delaying acquisition of the wakelocks.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the window of time is a transmission windowfor transmitting communications for the multiple applications.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the user remains inactive during the windowof time.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein delaying a timing of one ormore alarms comprising delaying a timing until a predetermined time. 7.The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking use of mobile deviceresources associated with the executed and delayed alarms.
 8. The methodof claim 1, further comprising further altering the behavior of themobile device when the acquired context awareness indicates that ascreen of the mobile device turns on or motion of the mobile device issensed.
 9. A mobile device, comprising: a memory; and a processor, themobile device configured for: executing alarms set by multipleapplications executing on the mobile device; acquiring a contextawareness of the mobile device, wherein the context awareness includesuser activity detection and a determination of whether the mobile deviceis charging; altering behavior of the mobile device to conserveresources based on the user activity detection of the acquired contextawareness, wherein the user activity detection is based on a signalindicating user activity at the mobile device, and wherein the behaviorof the mobile device is altered when the user activity detectionindicates that there is no user activity at the mobile device and themobile device is not charging, and wherein the behavior of the mobiledevice is altered by: delaying a timing of one or more alarms for themultiple applications, wherein the timing is delayed such that the oneor more delayed alarms execute within a window of time, wherein at leasta subset of the one or more delayed alarms are associated with one ormore wakelocks, and wherein the subset of the one or more delayed alarmsassociated with one or more wakelocks are delayed such that all alarmsassociated with a wakelock execute in alignment within the window oftime; preventing an application from accessing device-side resources ofthe mobile device based on application settings, wherein the applicationsettings include a user-selectable application selector that allows auser of the mobile device to enable the application to accessdevice-side resources of the mobile device before an alarm set by theapplication is executed in response to the user of the mobile devicedisabling restrictions for the application via the user-selectableapplication selector, and wherein the user-selectable applicationselector of the application settings allows the user of the mobiledevice to prevent the application from accessing device-side resourcesof the mobile device before an alarm set by the application is executedin response to the user of the mobile device enabling restrictions forthe application via the user-selectable application selector.
 10. Themobile device of claim 9, wherein the device-side resources of themobile device include network resources and CPU resources.
 11. Themobile device of claim 9, wherein the behavior of the mobile device isaltered by delaying acquisition of the wakelocks.
 12. The mobile deviceof claim 9, wherein the window of time is a transmission window fortransmitting communications for the multiple applications.
 13. Themobile device of claim 9, wherein the user remains inactive during thewindow of time.
 14. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein delaying atiming of one or more alarms comprising delaying a timing until apredetermined time.
 15. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein theprocessor is further configured for tracking use of mobile deviceresources associated with the executed and delayed alarms.
 16. Themobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configuredfor further altering the behavior of the mobile device when the acquiredcontext awareness indicates that a screen of the mobile device turns onor motion of the mobile device is sensed.